Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Flo Skatepark Construction Quote Tendered For Oakham Skate Park

Flo Skatepark Construction Quote Tendered For Oakham Skate Park




















Chris Straw OK for the record. Oakham council had a stock drawing from us but with a guide price for them to try and raise enough money to do something with the area. A user group was supposed to be set up and a custom design should be drawn up to suit the funding and space. 2 years ago the main Tarmac riding surface at the site was advised by ourselves as badly worn and becoming dangerous. We had carried out small repairs to the ramps and from being on site and skating it after the repair was done I was concerned how rough the floor had become in the 10 years or so it has been down. 
The image we sent for this site as far as we knew was just a guide for fundraising. It was just a spine ramp with some features that we have built before that just happens to fit the dimensions of the site. It was based on concrete but with no intention to actually build as it needed a whole design process to explore lots of different options with the site layout. This would include street layouts and different types of park. It's local to me so is really important and needed time to achieve the best use of the space. This was always going to be very difficult as the size of the space allowed as what's existing is all that is available and making use of this is tricky due to the strange length of it. It's just not quite long enough by about 6m to explore some really good layouts. FYI a 7' spine with 6' decks fits perfectly on what's existing but would obviously be absurd to build due to its tiny/non existing user base, it'd be mental and only useable for accomplished transition riders. Again the existing slab and its dimensions was picked by a playground company who cocked up the original skatepark build about 15 years ago!
It needed time for a design and meetings phase to happen that is all. A real shame it wasn't given it. The last park wasn't amazing but suited the scene at the time and the limited budget. Surely 3rd time round something really good could of been created! Who picked the manufacturer and design to be built and on what experience does this manufacturer and decision maker have in skatepark use?
8 July at 15:21